Lightning 2002 Draft Survival Guide

By Pete Choquette

May 13th, 2002

Once again the draft lottery fates have passed the Lightning by, leaving them with thefourth overall selection in the upcoming draft in June. As a team already well stocked withprospects, General Manager Jay Feaster has already publicly admitted the team may shoptheir first round selection for immediate help. Whether a trade does indeed transpire or notonly time will tell. In the mean time, we can speculate what the Lightning might do at thedraft based on the current strengths and weaknesses of their system. The Lightning holdtheir first round selection, a fourth, a fifth, two sixths, and two ninth round picks.

Goaltenders: (Evgeny Konstantinov, Michal Lanicek, Brian Eklund)It seems only fitting to start the article from the goal out, as the Lightning are clearlythinnest between the pipes. Other than all-world goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin theLightning are grossly undermanned at the goaltender position. Former third round pickEvgeny Konstantinov has the natural gifts to develop into an NHL goaltender, but hasstruggled in the transition to North America and has shown a lack of maturity at times indealing with his assignment to Pensacola of the ECHL last season. He will likely move upto Springfield of the AHL next year where the team will hope he can begin to show morepositive development. Lanicek is a quick scrappy goaltender who spent much of lastseason as backup with Muskegon of the UHL and could move into the starting role inPensacola next season, but his upside may be limited and he is still at least three yearsaway from Tampa if he makes it. Brian Eklund has regressed in the two seasons since theLightning selected him from Brown in the ECAC and lost his starting job to a freshmanthis past season. The organization has to decide whether to sign the ample sizedgoaltender this summer.

With this in mind, Jokerit goaltender Kari Lehtonen might not be a bad selection with thefourth overall pick. However there is a high degree of risk in selecting a goaltender sohigh, as they usually take longer than any other position to develop, and the team hasother positions of need to address over the next couple of seasons. More likely, the teamwill look into finding a solid goaltending prospect with their fourth round selection, andmaybe even look for an even later round gem to further bolster their stock of netminders.

Needs:

– A sure-fire “goaltender of the future”

– Overall depth at the position

Defensemen: (Holmqvist, Biron, Kudroc, Boumedienne, Goc)

The Lightning are arguably deepest on defense, where they have five solid NHL prospectswith some other potential diamonds in the rough like Jeremy Van Hoof and HenrikBergfors. The common denominator of most of these prospects is their size, as Holmqvist,Kudroc, and Biron are all 6â€™4â€ and above while Sascha Goc is a solid 6â€™2â€. The team alsohas an ample supply of right handed shots, with Kudroc and Biron in the AHL and DanBoyle, Pavel Kubina, and Corey Sarich at the NHL level.

With the recent serious wrist injury to Andreas Holmqvist, who will miss training camp,the Lightningâ€™s stock of potential left handed defensemen with good offensive upside mustcome under scrutiny. Josef Boumedienne, who was acquired from New Jersey in theAndrei Zyuzin trade, was asked by the organization to work on developing his offensivegame in Springfield, and he was an offensive standout with 7 goals and 32 points in 53games with the Falcons last year. Still, the team could use a top flight left handed pointprospect, and they could also use one with superior skating and stickhandling ability, asthe size of the current batch of young defensemen is also a curse as they tend to lumber, attimes. One thing the mid-season acquisition of Dan Boyle from the Florida Panthersproved was how much the team lacked a superior skating and stickhandling defensemancapable of gaining the zone on the power play on his own.

With all of this in mind, slick skating and stickhandling lefty point man Joni Pitkanen fromFinland might also make an excellent selection for the team. With their other picks, expectthe team to focus more on filling other positions as defenseman really is an overallorganizational strength. The exception may be if the Lightning can target a defensemanenforcer, as Feaster has made it clear he intends to ice a very physical and nasty hockeyclub under his watch.

Needs:

– A left handed power play point man

– More puckmoving and carrying ability

– Improved speed at the position

Center: (Svitov, Cibak)

As the never-ending saga of Alexander Svitov and his other former Omsk teammatescontinues to play itself out in the Russian court system, the team only really has one goodcenter prospect in North America right now in Martin Cibak. Cibak, who struggled inSpringfield much of the season after a solid rookie season with Detroit of the IHL,received a late season call up and improved his standing in the organization exponentially.Cibak has decent size at 6â€™1″ and 195 lbs, and has shown a propensity to play with slightlymore edge than the average European player and showed good playmaking skills hisrookie season in Detroit. He could make the NHL next year as a fourth liner, or findhimself back in Springfield where hopefully he can use his late season call up as a steppingstone for a solid 2002-2003 campaign.

With Johan Hagglund struggling mightily in his rookie pro season in the Swedish secondtier league and the continued enigmatic play of J-F Soucy, it might seem like center is apressing need for the team. However, with Vincent Lecavalier and Brad Richards both 21years old, and Sheldon Keefe playing a healthy amount of center at the end of the season,the teamâ€™s future at the position seems bright. The Lightning could probably stand to usesome of their later round picks just to add some more depth at the position, specificallysome bigger centers who can become role players for the team down the road.

Needs:

– Overall Depth at the Position

– Third/fourth line role players

Wingers: (But, Afanasenkov, Alexeev, Polushin, Keefe)

The Lightningâ€™s situation at wing is slightly underrated, and may not be quite as pressing aneed as it has been in past drafts. Nikita Alexeev, Sheldon Keefe, and young Swedishwinger Jimmie Olvestad all saw significant time in Tampa last season and look to continueto contribute for years to come. Alexeev, a work in progress, has monumental size andblazing speed, and as his offensive game fills out should become a solid second linecontributor. Not since the days of Darcy Tucker have the Lightning had an agitatorcapable of stirring things up like Sheldon Keefe. The fact he led the OHL in scoring hislast year in junior shows he too has the upside to possibly play on the top two lines.Olvestad, who has drawn comparisons to Ottawa winger Magnus Arvedsson, showedimpeccable defensive ability and speed that could help him develop into a top notchforechecker offensively in the future. The team also holds the rights to Anton But, whomatches Olvestad in speed but has shown offensive upside in Russia that could land himon a scoring line in the future, as well as overaged draftee Dimitry Bezrukov who some inthe organization believe could play in the NHL right now. Winger Alexander Polushin, a2001 2nd round pick, shined in the Russian teamâ€™s World Junior Championships goldmedal triumph, while Dennis Packard, Aaron Lobb, and Evgeny Artukhin add third andfourth line role player depth.

A player like slick OHL goalscorer Rick Nash would certainly be a welcome addition toany team, but he will likely be gone by the time the Lightning pick fourth and winger isless of a pressing need right now anyway. If the Lightning do go wing in later rounds, itwill most likely be to address the need for an enforcer prospect and to further bolster roleplayer depth. Check in with Hockeysfutureâ€™s Lightning page for more information as wemove towards the draft over the next month.